John Barry considers himself lucky — his yacht sank in the Buffalo River on Saturday night, but he’ll get it back. Other victims of the ferocious cut-off low weather system that swept across Buffalo City were not as lucky. At least two people died and several are still missing.
“There are people a lot worse off than me,” said Barry, who runs Southern Cross Cruises out of East London Port.
“We’ve just got boat problems, but no humans were involved. The wind was coming through here at about 35 to 40 knots. My boat hit into another boat and that made a hole beneath the waterline. But it’s one tiny little racing boat,” Barry told TimesLIVE Premium on Sunday, adding that he would retrieve it as soon as the river surge subsided. A mast protruding out of the river was all that could be seen of Barry's yacht.
“But there is a bit of a problem in other places.”
Disaster management officials are still counting the cost of widespread damage across the Eastern Cape, where as much as 200mm of rain fell in some areas within the space of a few hours. Some of the worst damage happened in the early hours of Sunday morning when National Sea Rescue Officials were called in to rescue several people trapped by rising floodwaters.
One of the most dramatic incidents involved a car with six occupants that was trapped in a raging river. One of the occupants had to be rescued from an island that formed in the river. Sadly another of the occupants was washed away and is presumed dead: “An adult female was swept away and is still missing, while the remaining four of these six people were recovered safe on the southern side of the river,” the NSRI said in a statement.
Rivers burst their banks and flooded some residential areas, with East London bearing the brunt of the storm. Gqeberha and Kariega (previously Uitenhage) also suffered extensive damage.
Subways throughout the city have been inundated with floodwaters, making them impassable and dangerous.
“Many vehicles have been trapped, with some motorists requiring rescue from their submerged cars. The rapid accumulation of water has overwhelmed drainage systems, leading to significant pooling on roads and low-lying areas,” said East London Facebook site Green Ripple in a post on Sunday.
It said the Nahoon River, along with several other rivers in the region, burst its banks due to the relentless downpour.
“Floodwaters have spilled over onto roadways, creating hazardous conditions and effectively cutting off certain areas from road access. The overflow from these rivers has exacerbated the flooding, contributing to the widespread chaos,” Green Ripple said.
The flooding also caused substantial damage to infrastructure, including roads, bridges and public transportation networks.
“Emergency services have been stretched thin, responding to numerous calls for assistance and conducting rescue operations.”
Barry said another unfortunate consequence of the flooding was a tide of pollution washing down the rivers “We have an enormous litter problem. Everything ends up in the sea every time we have a downpour,” he said.
